The tradition of making pledges to greet a New Year dates back over 4,000 years to the ancient Babylonians, but the term New Year’s resolution is of more recent vintage. The first reference to it is from a Boston newspaper circa 1813, Merriam-Webster notes, with the gist being that resolutions for better behavior may be well and good, but they’re not an excuse for instances of poor behavior exhibited during the previous year.
“And yet, I believe there are multitudes of people, accustomed to receive injunctions of new year resolutions, who will sin all the month of December, with a serious determination of beginning the new year with new resolutions and new behaviour, and with the full belief that they shall thus expiate and wipe away all their former faults.”
Nowadays, resolutions are almost always made in good faith. You may not develop six-pack abs or read the entirety of the Harvard Classics, but such resolutions reflect an honest desire to improve mind, body and spirit. And if you fail, there’s always next year.
But no one starts out believing they will fail, which is why travel to destinations such as Los Cabos may be viewed with trepidation. Enjoying luxurious accommodations and beautiful beaches during the heart of winter may sound like a recipe for indolence and idleness. In fact, the opposite is true. Los Cabos is the perfect place to maintain your resolutions, if only for a week or two until you’re back on home turf.
Getting more exercise
Virtually every resort in Los Cabos has a gym and fitness facilities, while the best may offer everything from yoga classes to guest visits from U.S.-based fitness instructors. That’s not to mention additional amenities like tennis courts or access to world-class golf courses.
This brings us to the real power of Los Cabos as a resolution-friendly destination: its wealth of outdoor-activities. There is almost nothing under the sun — yes, it shines every day, even in January — that you can’t do, and at a high-level, in Los Cabos. The surfing is superb, as is the fishing, sailing, kayaking and swimming (in the ocean or in indoor pools). On dry land, there’s hiking and biking, for starters, and several local activities companies provide guided climbing or mountain biking tours, for those who aren’t sure where to start or to find the most scenic trails.
That’s not to say you won’t have time for relaxing on local beaches. But you’ll get your cardio, too, even if it’s just counting your steps while you walk around downtown Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo.
Eating healthier food
If your goal is to lose weight or simply to eat healthier, whole foods, Los Cabos is the place to be. Famed for its farm-to-table restaurants featuring produce grown steps from where it’s served, the Los Cabos food scene is premised on using fresh, local ingredients.
That mantra extends to restaurants at hotels and resorts, where chefs frequently source many of their ingredients from organic farming communities like Miraflores, or from their own onsite gardens. Yes, you can binge on tacos. But processed foods will be minimal to nonexistent in that case, too.
The most famous ingredients aren’t fruits or vegetables, though, but freshly-caught local seafood. Those who go out fishing can have their catches prepared “you hook it, we cook it” style. But you don’t have to catch your own to enjoy delicious, Omega-3-rich tuna or dorado (aka mahi-mahi or dolphinfish) at almost every seaside restaurant in the area.
Sleeping better
Every time I’m invited to spend a night or two at a local resort, I marvel at the quality of my sleep. That’s not an accident. They work at it, from king-sized beds to temperature control to blackout curtains.
It helps, of course, if you’ve spent part of your day swimming, hiking or biking. But local properties, already masters of wellness (more on this soon), have increasingly been rolling out programs and initiatives aimed at better sleep. Thus, just as your fitness and food consumption are apt to improve while on vacation in Los Cabos, so too is your sleep.
Taking better care of your mind and body
Good physical condition and mental health are inextricably linked. As the ancient Roman writer Juvenal once pointed out, the goal is mens sana in corpore sano, a “healthy mind in a healthy body.”
The idea that you’re beach walking in shorts while your friends are freezing back home is certain to make you feel a little better about the start of a New Year. But there are many more amenities designed to improve both physical and mental health (such as eliminating schadenfreude). Foremost among these is the area’s world-class collection of pampering wellness spas, which offer everything from hydrotherapy to meditation and mindfulness programs.
Most of all, there’s the power of blue spaces. Meaning, the restorative power of being near the ocean, which more than any other landscape, has been shown to relieve stress. In Los Cabos, with its 125 miles of coastline featuring spectacular views of two major bodies of water — the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of California (or Sea of Cortés as it’s known locally — blue spaces abound. So too does restfulness and relaxation.
The cherry on top
If all of the above hasn’t convinced you that Los Cabos is actually where you need to be to start 2026, and a resolution to be added to your New Year’s list, let me add another interesting tidbit. The cost of accommodation for rooms at Los Cabos hotels and resorts is the lowest in recent memory. In January 2024, for instance, the average daily room rate in Los Cabos was US $533. By January 2025, that number had dipped slightly to $508.
According to the most recently released figures from November 2025, the average rate is now $421, and in some parts of the municipality, even less. In Cabo San Lucas, it’s only $280, in San José del Cabo, $283.
Chris Sands is the former Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best and writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook. He’s also a contributor to numerous websites and publications, including Tasting Table, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise, Cabo Living and Mexico News Daily.
